The Coinage of Phakion
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The coinage of Phakion Autor(en): Papaevangelou, Cleopatra E. Objekttyp: Article Zeitschrift: Schweizerische numismatische Rundschau = Revue suisse de numismatique = Rivista svizzera di numismatica Band (Jahr): 75 (1996) PDF erstellt am: 04.10.2021 Persistenter Link: http://doi.org/10.5169/seals-175515 Nutzungsbedingungen Die ETH-Bibliothek ist Anbieterin der digitalisierten Zeitschriften. Sie besitzt keine Urheberrechte an den Inhalten der Zeitschriften. Die Rechte liegen in der Regel bei den Herausgebern. Die auf der Plattform e-periodica veröffentlichten Dokumente stehen für nicht-kommerzielle Zwecke in Lehre und Forschung sowie für die private Nutzung frei zur Verfügung. Einzelne Dateien oder Ausdrucke aus diesem Angebot können zusammen mit diesen Nutzungsbedingungen und den korrekten Herkunftsbezeichnungen weitergegeben werden. Das Veröffentlichen von Bildern in Print- und Online-Publikationen ist nur mit vorheriger Genehmigung der Rechteinhaber erlaubt. Die systematische Speicherung von Teilen des elektronischen Angebots auf anderen Servern bedarf ebenfalls des schriftlichen Einverständnisses der Rechteinhaber. Haftungsausschluss Alle Angaben erfolgen ohne Gewähr für Vollständigkeit oder Richtigkeit. Es wird keine Haftung übernommen für Schäden durch die Verwendung von Informationen aus diesem Online-Angebot oder durch das Fehlen von Informationen. Dies gilt auch für Inhalte Dritter, die über dieses Angebot zugänglich sind. Ein Dienst der ETH-Bibliothek ETH Zürich, Rämistrasse 101, 8092 Zürich, Schweiz, www.library.ethz.ch http://www.e-periodica.ch CLEOPATRA E. PAPAEVANGELOU THE COINAGE OF PHAKION Plates 4-6 Phakion,1 a small city in northern Thessaly, is known from a few literary and epigraphic sources. Since the beginning of the last century travellers and historians have attempted to equate it with various ruins, sometimes in the Peneios valley and in other cases in that of the Enipeus.2 Although the exact ancient site of the city has not been securely identified as yet, the latest research suggests it was located at the border of Pelasgiotis with Hestiaeotis, between Pharkadon and Atrax (see map on p. 35). Our knowledge of Phakion is very limited.3 Despite its favourable location in the fertile valley of the Peneios, its economy seems never to have been fully developed and from a political point of view, the city must have been always overshadowed by more powerful neighbouring Thessalian cities. The scarce ancient sources and the total absence of archaeological data4 prevent modern scholars from reconstructing its history. One can assume that the foundation of Phakion, or at least its first settlement, occurred before the end of the 5th century B.C., when we have the first evidence of its existence in Thucydides.5 In the following centuries, 1 OÓK10V is etymologised by the word OÓK0C (=lentil). Thesaurus Graecae Linguae, IX, 597, s.v. «Mkiov; H. G. Liddell - R. Scott, 1913, s.v. OctKtOV. The name of the city originated perhaps from the ground configuration ofthe unidentified ancient site. A similar case is that of OciKOÇ (Phakos) (Plb. xxxi. 25), the fortress of Pella on a small hill in the shape of a lentil, see: D. Papakonstantinou-Diamantourou, UéXka. 'IOTOpiKr) è7uaK07rr|(Jiç Kai HapTUpiai (Pella, a Historical Survey), (Athens 1971), 62-63. 2 First W. M. Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, 4, (London 1835), 493, placed Phakion in Koutsocheri-Ahfaca, on the right bank of the Peneios. The same identification was adopted by C. Bursian, Geographie von Griechenland, 1, (Leipzig 1862), 53, N. Georgiades, ©EGOa^ia (Thessaly), (Athens 1880), 235 and C. D. Edmonds, Some doubtful points of Thessalian Topography, Annual Brit. School at Athens 5, 1898/9, 20-25. On the contrary, H. G. Lolling, Hellenische Landeskunde und Topographie, (1889), 152 and F. Stählin, Das hellenische Thessalien, (Stuttgart 1924), 132-133, looked for the city in the valley of the Enipeus. The first suggested the foot of mount Phylleion and the second the ruins south-east of the village of Petrinon. Finally, J.-Cl. Decourt, La vallée de l'Enipeus en Thessalie, BCH suppl. XXI, 1990, 84-89, 98-99, 118-119, 155-158, suggests that Phakion should be placed on the left bank of the Peneios. 3 B. Lenk, RE XIX, 2 (1964), 1609-10, s. v. Phakion. 4 For excavations that took place in unidentified ancient sites in the area in which Phakion is believed to be situated, see D. Leekley and N. Efstratiou, Archaeological Excavations in Central and Northern Greece, (Park Ridge 1980), 130. 5 Thuc. IV, 78, 5; A.W. Gomme, A Historical Commentary on Thucydides, III, (Oxford 1970), 545. In the historian's narration of the Peloponnesian War, and more specifically in his description of Brasidas' expedition against Amphipolis in 424 B.C., Phakion is mentioned as the last Thessalian city through which the Spartan general passed on his way towards Perrhaebia. 33 although its active participation in historical events is not attested, Phakion must have been influenced by the political and social developments that made Thessaly a field of foreign activity and military conflicts.6 The history of Phakion in the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C. can be marginally illuminated by three inscriptions which bear the name of the city or that of its citizens. The first is the list of the treasurers (TOC|J.toa) of the sanctuary of Delphi.7 From this inscription, if of course the emendation F. Stählin has suggested is correct, we are informed that in the years of the archon YlâXaiOÇ, (339-327 B.C.), a citizen of Phakion, the son of a certain Expàxayoç, was a treasurer ofthe Delphic sanctuary. The next epigraphical evidence, dated to the 4th or 3rd century B.C., comes from the base of a statue dedicated to Ennodia, found in Oreos of Euboea.8 This inscription is quite valuable as it indicates the worship of Ennodia in Phakion. According to P. Chrysostomou, the dedicator AtfGOCVUXÇ Kcop(A,Ot) ÉK OOCKLCO, serving as a mercenary in Oreos, chose to offer his dedication to this goddess possibly because she was worshipped in his home city.9 The third inscription related to Phakion is the Delphic list of the «sacred envoy receivers» (OecopoôOKOi).10 The inclusion of èv OocKicOi A(X(papeî)Ç MeyaA,OKA,èoç in this list attests that in the 3rd century B.C. the city was visited by the «sacred envoy» (Oecopoi) of Delphi and that a citizen of Phakion was wealthy enough to offer hospitality to the visiting theoroi. Another piece of information about the city's history is supplied by Livy: in the beginning of the 2nd century B.C., Phakion experienced two successive misfortunes. In Livy's narrative of the events of 198 B.C.11 Phakion is mentioned as one of the Thessalian cities that Philip V destroyed in order to devastate the area and thus cut T. Q. Flamininus' line of supply. The same historian refers to the city's capture by Marcus Baebius during his expedition in 191 B.C. against 6 After the Peloponnesian War, Thessaly went through a period of instability. The conflicts between Larissa and the tyrants of Pherae, and the subsequent interventions of the Macedonian kings and the Boeotians in the Thessalian affairs were followed by the occupation of Thessaly by Philip II and a continuous Macedonian presence up to the time of Philip V. 7 E. Bourguet, L'administration financière du sanctuaire delphique, (1915), 176, I. 43; Syll.3, 249 B, 43. In these first publications scholars have read O[aXc0pi]taç; however, F. Stählin (see n. 2), 133, n. 9 has suggested a correction to 0[aKiao]T(XÇ; J.-Cl. Decourt (see n. 2), 156. 8 E. Legrand - G. Doublet, Inscriptions d'Eubée, BCH 15, 1891, 412, 25; IG XII, 9, 1193; U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Der Glaube der Hellenen, 1, (Darmstadt 19552), 171 n. 3; M. Sakellariou, La migration grecque en Ionie, (Athens 1958), 216 n. 9; J.-Cl. Decourt (see n. 2), 156. This inscription is now lost and known only from its initial publication by E. Legrand and G. Doublet. 9 P. Chrysostomou, H ©eoaaÀiKTJ "deà Ev(v)o5îa r) Oepaia (The Thessalian goddess Ennodia), (Thessalonike 1991), 143-148 (unpublished thesis). 10 A. Plassart, Inscriptions de Delphes, La liste des théorodoques, BCH 45, 1921, 16, III, 25; J.-Cl. Decourt (n. 2), 156-7. 11 Liv. XXXII, 13, 9. J. Briscoe, A Commentary on Livy, (Oxford 1973), 190. 34 /xvMT^YYS l/ --A \ l A -/500^' ¦? < ,^ *• X /Oloosson » " V la N f\ •——*-*-. o-' ^'\ p«rrhaibia(_\ >¦—->. Uopi «.-"N 9 200 Nés SOniS had Phaaon Gom ^ U -"o S' b S ko V Pherai^Vy i\ S V *?V VC «'oo / p l.eli fi&°*i> "V Ph / I ^ Mil Xvnia r^s ancient sii« Hyp A^v ^ a^, Map from H. Reinders, New Halos, a Hellenistic Town in Thessalia, Greece (Utrecht 1988), 22. Districts and cities of Thessalia in Classical and Hellenistic times. There has been the addition of Phacion? between Pharkadon and Atrax. 35 Antiochos III.12 It is not known, however, if the destruction and capture of the city meant the end of its existence as well. Finally, the last ancient source referring to Phakion is Stephanus Byzantius. The only information drawn from his work E#vucâ is that the ethnic of a citizen of Phakion was OotKteiJÇ.13 In a small and rather insignificant city, as Phakion appears to have been, the economy was presumably rather restricted and most of its trade confined within the borders of Thessaly. For the limited daily exchanges barter must have been prevalent and the resultant, almost non-existent, need for higher-value currency must have been satisfied by the use of «foreign» coins, perhaps those of dominant nearby cities, such as Larissa. However, Phakion during a certain period of its history, probably in the 3rd century B.C., was numismatically active with the production of a limited issue of bronze coins.